Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the issue of school transport, about which there has been a bit of discussion. Last week, before my time ran out, I briefly raised with the Minister the mandatory retirement age of 70 for Bus Éireann drivers. This is something I have raised in the Dáil a number of times. I wish to address this issue in more detail. A lot of bus operators are in contact with me about letters they have received stating that some of their drivers, the number of whom depends on the number of buses those operators have, will not be able to operate school transport routes from September. We are talking about some operators that might have 11 routes and have received four or five letters. They are struggling to replace those drivers.

The problem is that these are local, short routes for the most part. It is one hour or one and a half hours in the morning and the same in the evening done by a driver who has had their licence signed off by a doctor. Although they are safe to drive and are insured, they cannot do that route anymore. The same driver could be replaced on the school bus route and the children dropped off at the front gate. The driver who had been replaced could then arrive in a coach to drive those children to the Cliffs of Moher or up to Dublin Zoo on a school tour. They just cannot drive the school bus route. That does not make sense just because they are over 70. Similarly, Local Link drivers can continue to drive when they are over 70. It is a mandatory, arbitrary age put on school bus drivers by Bus Éireann which I find difficult to accept, particularly when there is a shortage of drivers. While I absolutely and 100% support mitigating risk, why is 70 the right age all of a sudden? What about 68, 69, 71 or 72? Why has that age been chosen as the risk, particularly when those 101 licences have to be signed off on by doctors? I cannot comprehend it. I do not see why we are creating this shortage. Although it is not a long-term solution to address the shortage, it is a great way for someone who is retired to do that work in the morning and evening. That work has been taken from them.

A lot of bus operators with whom I am speaking in north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny will struggle to fill their routes this year. I have called for this policy to be looked at and changed a number of times, whether that means we increase the mandatory age to 72, 73, or 75, or we look at the size of the bus. If Bus Éireann will not let drivers aged above 70 drive a 52-seater bus, what about a 16-seater or 20-something bus that would suit a lot of routes? Could we come to that compromise, while at all times maintaining safety on the routes?